No issues with BJP but centre has to take call on our demands: Mehbooba

Srinagar, March 7 (IANS) PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said Monday that implementation of the agenda of alliance and heading the new Jammu and Kashmir government were both important issues for her, but added that the central government would have to take steps for this to happen.

Addressing workers of her Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kupwara town, she said: “For me, the decision of forming an alliance with the BJP is a sacred legacy of my father, (the late) Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.

“But equally sacred for me is the implementation of the agenda of alliance w hich my father agreed to with the BJP.

“I have no issues with the BJP. My party’s alliance with the BJP is intact. But, my demand is for the central government to come forward and take steps so that my becoming the chief minister of the state benefits the people.”

Mehbooba reiterated that she has no ambition to become the chief minister for the sake of pomp and show.

“If I had any burning personal ambition, I might have become chief minister of the state much earlier, even during my father’s lifetime.

“When doctors advised my father not to interact with the public for fear of catching infection, I could have become the chief minister, but I chose not to because Mufti Sahib had a burning desire to serve his people till the very end of his life,” she said.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unscheduled visit to Pakistan in December, she said: “When Modiji visited Pakistan, I broke the news to my father when he was in the hospital. He smiled and told me ‘I have always told you war is neither a solution for us (India) nor for them (Pakistan)’.

“For me those words of my father are sacred. Our youth are dying at an age when they should learn to live and grow in life.

“A poor man’s son, Captain Tushar from Udhampur was killed in an encounter recently. He was just 26. Another youth who was known as ‘Newton’ in his neighborhood because he had secured 98 percent marks was killed as a militant at the age of 16.

“Whether our youth get killed at 26 or 16, it is tragic and needs to be stopped. If I become chief minister without being able to stop the mindless killing of our youth, what use is that for me?” she asked.